Power crisis: Someone should answer
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
Despite all the neglect and bungling in the power sector, the actual base period deficit compared to demand is not much more than 500 to 700mw and in the peak period some 1500 mw. But why have we been faltering to produce this only 1500 mw of power year after year? Due to this gap between demand and supply the entire wheels of the economy are failing to churn as they should.
The potential growth of the economy has been stifled and people's suffering has become unbearable. We all know that the four party-alliance government did not work during its last tenure and caused the power crisis to deepen. But why could not the caretaker government -- enjoying the strengths acquired from a declaration of emergency and having experts in its ranks and the backing of the military -- do nothing during its two-year tenure to advance any power production? More enigmatic is the role of the incumbents in power. They rode to power on a wave of promises -- solution to the power problem, among other things.
People are apprehending the worst in the present summer season for, despite tall talks, power generation remains insufficient. There is no reason for it. People will not believe anymore that easing of the power crisis on a quick, time-bound basis is so very difficult or impossible. The country has had a foreign currency reserve of 10 billion US dollars or near about for some years.
This government could have gone to work with a sense of the greatest urgency right from the first day in power. It could utilise, say, just one billion dollars to set up generation capacities to produce nearly 1,000 mw of power by now. But it chose to take shelter under the argument that it is so very difficult to mobilise adequate resources to add capacities to the power sector! What good is holding on to a bigger foreign currency reserve if the economy's growth gets slowed down from an energy crisis? If about a billion dollars were spent from the reserve during 2009, still then the country would be left with a comfortable reserve and an easing of the power crisis would come nearer by now.
Khademul Islam
New Eskaton, Dhaka
The potential growth of the economy has been stifled and people's suffering has become unbearable. We all know that the four party-alliance government did not work during its last tenure and caused the power crisis to deepen. But why could not the caretaker government -- enjoying the strengths acquired from a declaration of emergency and having experts in its ranks and the backing of the military -- do nothing during its two-year tenure to advance any power production? More enigmatic is the role of the incumbents in power. They rode to power on a wave of promises -- solution to the power problem, among other things.
People are apprehending the worst in the present summer season for, despite tall talks, power generation remains insufficient. There is no reason for it. People will not believe anymore that easing of the power crisis on a quick, time-bound basis is so very difficult or impossible. The country has had a foreign currency reserve of 10 billion US dollars or near about for some years.
This government could have gone to work with a sense of the greatest urgency right from the first day in power. It could utilise, say, just one billion dollars to set up generation capacities to produce nearly 1,000 mw of power by now. But it chose to take shelter under the argument that it is so very difficult to mobilise adequate resources to add capacities to the power sector! What good is holding on to a bigger foreign currency reserve if the economy's growth gets slowed down from an energy crisis? If about a billion dollars were spent from the reserve during 2009, still then the country would be left with a comfortable reserve and an easing of the power crisis would come nearer by now.
Khademul Islam
New Eskaton, Dhaka